Temperature in the brew hall today is around 30 degrees and I keep finding excuses to go into our lovely new cold room. It's delicious in there, surrounded by all those gleaming freshly-racked casks of beer, and I'm thinking of moving in for the forseeable.
Deliveries in this weather are a bit of a headache - not only is it really steamy in the Big White Van, but there is the added frisson caused by the odd exoploding cask in the back. We're a lot better this year as we can set off with our beer really really cold, which makes it even more of a shame to hand it over to the one or two landlords we supply who haven't grasped the nettle as far as cellar cooling is concerned. There are even two who keep their beer outside, one a well-known and otherwise highly respected chap, and we have just declined to supply him for the remainder of the heatwave. There's nothing worse than driving away knowing that the next day or so will being a cry for help "It was only outside for half an hour or so, I just don't know what happened..."
Talking to Sue at Abbeydale the other day I discovered that some of her clients are well known for this practice, one in particular having earned the nickname 'BBB' for Beer-Boiling Bastard. I think he has relatives in the trade here in Cumbria ...
I expect that some beer bloggers would go on at this point about the optimum temperatures for storing beer, both at rack and in cellars. But I just haven't the heart, as long as I can rely on a landlord to keep the beer under 12 degrees I'm happy. It won't be long before I am joining them in complaining about chill hazes ...
And here's a pic of our latest additions, one of our swallow brood which has fledged this afternoon. They are lined up on the brewery door at the moment, egging each other on to fly just that little bit further, to push the envelope. They have to get ready for the big trek to South Africa later this year, and it wouldn't do to be unfit and unprepared, would it? There's a moral in there somewhere.
Last summer I delivered to a very well known lakeland hostelry. As requested, I left the single 9 outside the cellar door. Only one of the 2 empties I was expecting was there, so when a few days later I happened to be close by, I swung past to have another look... Imagine my surprise to find the recently delivered item still sitting in exactly the same spot, only now minus keystone (and down a few pints). I took it away. No-one said anything and we've never called them again. Nor will we.
ReplyDeleteI'm just about to compose a letter to a landlord who was buying our beer several at a time, then leaving it outside his cellar. He's wanting his money back for the beers we delivered on 16/7, which were still there on 22/7, and which (surprise, surprise) failed to settle when he dragged them inside and tapped them on 29/7. Of course, it never happens with anyone else's beer, does it? Just yours and mine by the sound of it!
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